02J transmission--junk it or rebuild it?

[sisyphus]

So I have this 02J gearbox here that came out of an '01 Jetta. (my other TDI). The synchros are bad, and maybe a couple of the bearings, etc. Unclear on what exactly may be wrong outside of the synchros. I looked around for the new synchros and found them but HOLY CROW are they expensive. It made more sense to get a used transmission, so I did. Now I have this thing sitting here.
I have no issues rebuilding it and keeping it around, now that I have two of these cars, but is this something that would require special tools? I have any number of generic pullers, a 12T press, etc. Is it worth doing it myself? Is there a separate manual just for the transmission? If I do it and decide to sell it, what's it worth? I see reman's going for $1200, and considering the labor involved it's believable.
These cars are aging and while parts aren't exactly rare, they're becoming hard to find.

 

[Hyde7278]

I'd pull the 5th gear set and the ring and pinion and sell them to someone with a gasser on Vortex. I'm in the process of selling my stock 5th gear to someone for $200

 

[jettawreck]

I could probably use a first gear shift fork for a unit I removed supposedly due to that issue.

 

[sisyphus]

What issue?

 

[jettawreck]

What issue?

Mine (from a 1.8T parts car) wouldn't engage 1st gear. Advice was that the internal shift fork was most likely bent. All other gears worked and engaged fine, just couldn't get into 1st. Installed tranny from another 1.8 parts car with bad engine, so still have a 02J laying around that has a bad shift fork. Probably...

 

[Drivbiwire]

If you pay the shipping I'll be happy to fix it, labor charge will be minimal.

If its more than that, we can send a quote for the additional parts and you can make the determination from there.

 

[jettawreck]

If you pay the shipping I'll be happy to fix it, labor charge will be minimal.

If its more than that, we can send a quote for the additional parts and you can make the determination from there.

Thanks, but it's just a "spare" for now. Shipping from Mn and back would be more than it's worth. It came out of a 1.8 that had the tranny issue (giving the 2004 1.8 to buddy's kid for first car) and I swapped in one from the 1.8 chassis with a bad engine (nice shape 2003 for$600) that will eventually be the receiptient for the TDI engine from my 2003 that was rear ended. The tranny won't be used in the TDI swap, I have the correct ratio box from the wreck.
Simple huh? Wish it was done.

 

[sisyphus]

I don't see how you could bend a shift fork in one of these. They aren't the typical fork shape, really. They're quite robust. More likely than not the synchros are worn out beyond the .030" tolerance. But once you go through the trouble to disassembling the shaft to get at them, you may as well go in for a full rebuild of the thing. You'd have to press everything off the shaft to get at them.
If you take it apart you can see how the shift shaft selector works with the forks.

 

[Drivbiwire]

Another issue is that the cables were out of adjustment OR 5th gear is not adjusted correctly internal in the outboard 5th gear housing.

 

[jettawreck]

I don't see how you could bend a shift fork in one of these. They aren't the typical fork shape, really. They're quite robust. More likely than not the synchros are worn out beyond the .030" tolerance. But once you go through the trouble to disassembling the shaft to get at them, you may as well go in for a full rebuild of the thing. You'd have to press everything off the shaft to get at them.
If you take it apart you can see how the shift shaft selector works with the forks.

If you visit vwvortex, idiots bend them. Wasn't my car, bought it that way.
1st gear simply found not be entered, even with shift cables disconnected and when even removed from the car. All other gears worked/engaged perfectly. Shift tower is in good condition. Bought it with the assumption it was an adjustment issue, it wasn't.
No big deal.

 

[jettawreck]

Another issue is that the cables were out of adjustment OR 5th gear is not adjusted correctly internal in the outboard 5th gear housing.

Cables got a good many adjustments and as mentioned above, can't enter 1st gear even with tranny out of the car manually working the shifts.
Perhaps the 5th gear adjustment thing, I don't know. Perhaps this winter or next spring I'll look at it. Too much to do until then.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep them in mind.

 

[1kmiletdi]

Another issue is that the cables were out of adjustment OR 5th gear is not adjusted correctly internal in the outboard 5th gear housing.

do you rebuild o2j's?

 

[jettawreck]

do you rebuild o2j's?

The forum member Drivbiwire hasn't been on the forum for over 5 years (unfortunately).
The resolution to the issue with the transmission I had was one of the syncros was slightly "burred" and prevented the gear from sliding on the spline to where it needed to be to engage that gear set. Apparently the prior owner missed a gear change badly and messed it up pretty good although the tolerances are very precise and it was hard to visually see the damage. Tore it down and replaced the messed up parts (it's been a long time ago so details are very sketchy). It was a lot of time spent but not real difficult.
There was a very detailed build thread on vwvortex that I \we printed and used as resource info.

 

[golfclub]

Have a o2j tranny sitting out of my car.
This thread made me curious about its 5 th gear.
How hard is it to check it and the shaft to see if it is
worth keeping. Any special tools needed

Thanks

 

[jettawreck]

I believe you can check the condition of 5th at the access panel on the end (driver side) of the case w\o splitting it open.

 

[golfclub]

Thanks, I will pull the cover off today.
I wasn't sure if you could see all the possible damage just by looking
and not pulling gears off.

 

[AndyBees]

The forum member Drivbiwire hasn't been on the forum for over 5 years (unfortunately)

Does anyone know what happened to Drivebiwire?

@golfclub, besides wear of the 5th gear bearing, the Slider and Hub are prone to serious wear. If it is staying in gear, well, it is still good. Once it begins popping out of gear, well, it's time for a new hub/slider assembly which are like finding hen's teeth.

Also, the spines on the shaft for the fixed gear of the 5th gear set is known to wear as well as the splines on the shaft where the hub goes are both known to wear.

5th gear is out there on the end of the transmission and is the first to suffer from a low oil condition. Also, the little TDI engine puts a lot of torque on 5th gear which is basically an over-drive.

 

[STDOUBT]

Does anyone know what happened to Drivebiwire?

I don't remember specifically, but I do recall some people on here were badmouthing his injector work/business.
I think he got insulted one too many times and swore us off. Not sure though, but I remember something like that.
His website is still up, so that's a good sign!

 

[AndyBees]

Yeah, Drivebiwire was among the early members of the Club.

 

[Matt-98AHU]

Does anyone know what happened to Drivebiwire?

He disappeared off of social media after the 2020 election, too...